ITV1

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ITV1 is a public service network station in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. ITV1 is a television broadcasting channel currently owned by ITV, although a small amount of its branding is used by Channel Television. ITV1 has a specific legal name (since the Broadcasting Act 1980) of Channel 3. For the whole time that Pokémon was aired, ITV1 was the only channel broadcast by ITV, and was named simply ITV, or by the local programming company name (i.e. Anglia Television etc.).

ITV1 has only ever (as of the current date) aired the first two seasons of the Pokémon anime. It is also the only station that has ever broadcast the Pokémon anime on UK terrestrial television.

Since ITV1 has not broadcast any episodes for several years, it is unknown if ITV1 still has the license to transmit Pokémon anime; however its sister channel CiTV (also owned by ITV) continues to show Pokémon episodes.

GMTV

GMTV is the early morning programming slot of ITV1, that used to run an episode every Saturday, starting around 08:50 and ending by 09:25. Due to the massive popularity of the franchise, Pokémon had replaced the cartoon slot previously reserved for Power Rangers. It was shown in this time slot from September 1999 until sometime after the Red and Blue Gameboy games were released in the UK.

SM:TV Live

SM:TV Live was a live Saturday morning entertainment show that started at 09:25. Pokémon was usually aired at 09:30. SM:TV replaced the Who's That Pokémon? part of the episode, conventionally placed to allow for an advertisement break, with small sketches in which the hosts Ant & Dec had their own "PokéFight". Some later segments featured Ant & Dec's PokéRap.

The PokéFight sketches featured "non-official Pokémon", Ant as "G-G-G-Gary", and Dec as Ash or Misty. They used "Pokémon" as a move. For example, 'Embarrassmon' involved one dueller telling a secret about the other, who would turn red and their health would diminish; or Ant unleashing HeWhoSmeltItDealtIt - "HeWhoSmeltItDealtIt is an Air Pokémon, and the first person to smell its pungent aroma shall be blamed for its origins!" Dec as Misty would often comment about Westlife's W.

The PokéRap, featured Ant & Dec as rappers with a UK car registration plate (a reluctant Ant) and a Skoda Badge (an energetic Dec) as pendants. They both wore red knitted jumpers with Pikachu and their names on the front. Always starting from the cue "Hit it," their rap usually ended with the "Pikachu, Pikachu, P-P-Pikachu!" chorus and the last line "SMTV will make you Poké-tuff; 9:25 every Saturday - don't be a Jigglypuff! Aww yeah, UH!" This sketch was killed off as Dec was crushed by a "10-ton weight" much to the rejoice of the studio, the producers, Richard and Judy (host of "This Morning") in their studio, and weather forecaster Siân Lloyd.

Missing Episodes of Shows

ITV1 has noticeably more than once skipped episodes, or changed television shows mid-series. It often shuffled the time slot, airing Re:boot and Card Captor Sakura before Pokémon, and Digimon following Pokémon).

Pokémon has been stopped twice, firstly during the Pokémon: The Adventures in the Orange Islands and secondly just after Pokémon: Advanced started.

External Links

• ITV1 on Wikipedia
• Official site

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